Gothic Space Horror

#81

Ao cracked his knuckles in nervousness, pacing down one of the Ballard's dull plasteel corridors. The soft buzz of the various power lines and tubes along the walls and ceilings grated on his nerves. He had never liked that sound.
He stopped, turned, glanced down the passage, illuminated by virucidal lightstrips.
With a small twitch, Ao shook his head and chuckled. What was wrong with him? Jumping at shadows.
He just had a bad feeling, that was it. It was just nerves. Nothing was going to go wrong. He would go out there, haul back the ship, and, bang, instant cash.
So why couldn't he rid himself of this foreboding?

Gothic Space Horror

#82

A short woman with curly dark hair and the heavy tread of an Earther approached him, she wore a faint smile, but looked tired. The ensignia on her shoulder marked her as one of the ranking officers on the ship, 2nd in command likely. Oddly enough, the red cross also marked her as medical personel.

"You must be one of our new arrivals...OW..." she tried to pronounce his name correctly. Her accent marked her as an American, only slightly less obnoxious than than a Russo-Martian, or one of the imperialistic French Acadians who settled most of Europa.

"I am Lt. Marney, chief medical officer, and second in command of the Bally. I can show you to your quarters, and then we can see about getting your medical information." she said in a pleasant but business like manner.

Gothic Space Horror

#83

"The, ah, medical info, first. I'd like to get that out of the way, thanks."
Ao followed the American towards the medical bay.

Gothic Space Horror

#84

"Well, I have to say that you seem to be quite comfortable on a ship, Lunar?" she asked as she walked him first to the medbay. She handled the various tests quickly and efficiently, her manner brisk but not rude.

After the rather awkward examination, she walked him back through the ship to where the crew berths were. It took his breath for a moment. The ship had single occupancy cabins for the crew members, complete with a water sink, and a spacious locker at the foot of the bed. There was even a small holoprojector in the wall that would play whatever TriD discs he had on him.

"This is your room, and you have been assigned to the Ashigo, one of the salvage shuttles." she said, showing him the various functions and features of the room.

"The mess serves whatever food you can cook yourself, and their is a well equiped lounge, there is excercise equipment, a larger holoplayer, and some other stuff for entertainment." She said.

Gothic Space Horror

#85

"Bitchin'!" he shouted, nearly yelping, as his eyes swept the room. After containing himself, he nodded to the doctor. "Thanks much."
His nerves calmed, somewhat.

Gothic Space Horror

#86

Taget merely rolled his eyes at his crew mate's enthusiasm.

Gothic Space Horror

#87

"I suppose you have seen better? Or does this seem too soft for you?" Lt. Marney asked Taget, the good humor evaporating from her voice.

"It is easy to forget that not every spacer is as jaded as some fo us, and to some people a room this large is bigger than their homes." she said with a little edge to her voice. Once one of the greatest military powers before the formation of Unified Earth, America had fallen from preeminence. Many cities were already overcrowded and the depletion of the economy made conditions worse.

Many families were driven into abject poverty, and forced to surrended their unpaid for vehicles, and lost their homes. Soon massive government tenament projects were sponsored to deal with the burgeoning unemployment and homelessness rates.

The new powers subsidized much of the construction, France, Germany, and China and Indo-Japan purchased huge sections of the county. Many Americans, even though the country was formally dissolved during the Unification, were still bitter about the fall of their country.

But then again, so were the Romans.

Gothic Space Horror

#88

"A c-drop out of here sounds pretty good right now Hue. Beer sounds good too. Dont know poker though. But I am willing to learn." She smiled at him. "Just as long as you dont try to cheat me." She followed him off of the ship. "SO who is buying the first round of drinks?"

Gothic Space Horror

#89

"Well," Hue said mischeviously pulling an old deck from his pocket, "I was gonna let the cards decide but I'll get the first rounf let's say adn we'll see what happens from there."

A short time later the two were in a small bar in the moonside, the place was small but crowded. Always a good sign that there was good drinkin there. Hue had brought over a local ale it was pretty good based on some of the piss Hue had drunk in his time. He brought at the old deck of calds, "Well poker is a five card hand game where you try to get the best combination of cards tob eat your opponent. You got a two pair which just a pair of cards of the same face or number." Hue held up a pair of jacks.

"The next is three pair and four pair. A small straight which is a sequence of four cards in order of any suit. Then a full house which is a two pair and a three pair. A large straight same thing but five cards. A Flush which is large straight but all the same suit, and a royal flush which is the samething but all the cards range from 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. You can lay down 1 to 5 cards once and pick up the same number."

Hue dealt the cards with a tell tale look that said let the games begin..

Gothic Space Horror

#90

Micky nodded. She listened to him tell her about the game. Though that slightly confused look remained.The first two hands had just been lucky. She drank the ale slowly. She grinned and him and then gave him alittle wink. Was her third hand just as lucky as the first two or was she just toying with him? "So...what have you been doing since Diamunde?"

Gothic Space Horror

#91

"I stayed on for another deployment after Diamunde, it was tracking down some lost scientist, they had been wiped out by a flesh eating plague." The way he spoke obviously said there had been more than a simple flesh eating plague but that here wasn't the place to talk. "I got out after that, I lost alot of good friends at Diamunde, I've been in the proavte sector for about a year or so I guess now. Mostly been working on sea going ships, this is the first space job I've taken sine a year and a half ago." Amas glanced at his cards he had, an ace of spades, a 3 diamonds, the ace of hearts, the eight of hearts, and the eight of clubs. He laid down the three and drew another card.

"So what have you been doing since Diamunde?" Amas glanced at his next card, and gave a slight smile. The card he drew was the eight of spades, he held a full house.

Gothic Space Horror

#92

Micky frowned slightly. Her cards...were duds. Nothing good in them. "Spent most of my time pilotting the Cataran. Mercenary work mostly. The occassional deep space mission." She shrugged. "Nothing special." Micky folded up her hand and placed it face down on the table. "I've got nothing." She finished her ale. "So...tell me more about yourself. I mean we are going to be spending the next few months together. It's nice to know about who I am traveling with."

Gothic Space Horror

#93

Hue grinned, "Full house but we're only playing for fun anyways. Me? Well theres been a Long in the military ever since there's been a military. I don't really remember the story but my great-great grandfather can't remember how many generations moved to old America during the WWII, he was Japanese and had a rough time of it here but adventually once the buisness of the war settled down he wass able to settle down in Seattle, Washington, up in the northwestern region below old Canada. Since then I still have family there today who live there today. Two sisters who have big families but the house is pretty big and fits them both. I was pretty board with life on Earth, probaly read a good too many war novels between Earth and the colonies. So I signed up for the Marine Corps, I was a pretty good shot, I took a couple other tests and Mother Corps filed me as a combat medic. I was stationed at Thorsfini World for two years out at the edge of UEC space. I served two tours on an amphibous assault ship. Then Diaumunde broke out." Hue had a far off look in his eyes, he shifted a little.

"So here I am thirty two years old, hopefully with the money I make form this... Well not a good idea to make plans with money you don't have yet, so tell me about your self. I'm mighty interested how a Raptorjock becomes the pilot for a bucket like the Ballard."

Gothic Space Horror

#94

Captain Gildenstern sat alone on the bridge of the Ballard. The ship was quiet, the engines offline, and the reactor core on standby power. There were a few lights burning on the various control panels, but the majority of the washed out blue light came from a single projector. It was rare the bank of projectors was turned off, it seemed strange to see the cold steel bulkheads the were usually covered by floating maps, systems diagrams and projected images from hull mounted cameras.

A young girl, perhaps seven or eight played, chasing a brightly colored ball. She was blonde headed, and obviously related to the captain. The grainy nature of the projection betrayed its age. The data reel might be twenty ot thirty years old, predating the current generation of TriD projectors by at least a decade.

"It seems life is not without a sense of irony." he said aloud, his voice sounding strangly metallic and alien in the iron womb of the bridge. Most of the crew was away on Europa, enjoying what human contact and cheap beer they could afford before pushing off into the soul crushing darkness beyond Jupiter.

Most people assumed that traveling to the edge of the solar system was safer than taking the jaunt through dimensional space to another star. They were wrong. Deep missions beyond Jupiter had poor success rates, most turned back, and no type mission had more missing ships, more lost crews.

He felt the weight of the gun in his shoulder holster, an archaic weapon of blued steel, powerful.

Gothic Space Horror

#95

"RaptorJock" Micky grinned. She still found that word amusing. "Well you sign up for what ever pilot job that comes you way during peaceful times. Otherwise, you dont eat." She shrugged.
"Started piloting at a pretty young age. I dont like to have my feet on the ground for too long." Micky shifted in her seat. She looked at the cards she had left on the table. " I havent actually been down on Earth in a couple of years. The gravity feels all wrong." Micky sighed.
"Hue, how do you feel about the colonies?" She looked up at him.

Gothic Space Horror

#96

Hue let out a small sigh, "I think it's the next Diamunde, there whats? Fifeteen, maybe twenty super stations in the inner rim not to mention little outposts like these. Why else would the UEC be testing warships? Their loosing the hold on the Freedom Party, it's only a matter of time. The colonies for one think Earthers are a lot of barbrians, it's unnerving. I'm only conpiring but have you been to P3X9 lately? Or ant of the others either? They've all got immigration acts against planetary citizens, have you ever tried to live in one when you grew up on a planet like Earth, or Elneal? Warships that can travel faster than light making test runs in deep space? I don't really know but the next decade or two is going to see alot of change. Something has too."

With that he produced a big Fidel cigar, "These are horrible for ya but damn, every man's got a vice or two." He clipped and let it, then offered one to Micky.

Gothic Space Horror

#97

Micky shook her head, "Thank you but no. I dont smoke." She was thinking about what he had said.
"Not everyone in the colonies think Earthers are barbarians." She sighed.
"Your right about it becomming the next Diamunde. Space born and planetary citizen dont communicate. And yes I have been to P3X9 lately. Things have gotten worse there. I was there two years ago." She shrugged.
"Eventually it's going to come to war. And most likely it will start in P3X9. Neither the space born or planetary citizens like each other. But most likely the space born citizens of P3X9 will fire the first shot. Next thing you know, all space born on Earth are arrested and locked into quaratine, while every planetary citizen in the colonies goes through the same thing or ejected out into space. Either way, things are going to get ugly."
Micky ordered them a fresh round of drinks. She took a sip of her beer. "After this mission, I'm done. If the money off of this is good as it sounds like, I am buying my own ship and just picking a direction." Truth was that she could already afford her own ship and then some. She enjoyed being a pilot and the mission had sounded interesting. She was going to quit after leaving the Cataran. But sometimes you just want one more round before it's over.
"What do you think of the space born citizens? I mean you told me what they think of planetary citizens. You must have some opinion about them. I've been out in space piloting too long to know what Earthers say about the colonies."

Gothic Space Horror

#98

"I couldnt help but overhear your comments." Lt. Marney said, her uniform replaced with civvies. Surprisingly she held a bulb of beer in her hand, her hair lat down. "My ex-husband and son live on P3X9, I hear from Josh, my son, on occassion. He tells me things and I worry, I worry alot."

"The thought of the UE building honest to god warships scares me. I've seen what the UE can do when it decides too." she said, "I had family living in Old New York before the UE dropped a bomb on it. My father was a jarhead, a marine during the invasion of the east coast..." she said. The UE campaign to take the east coast of the United States went down in the history books as one of the most bloody, and costly victories in UE history, and one of the most savage battles in world history.

"It is going to happen again." she said, draining the bulb with a single drink. "Unless the colonies can present a united front, they will fall, one after another. Look at the Sol system, the UE owns the Lunar colonies, and all of the Jovian colonies. Only Mars remains technically free, but we all know where they will turn when the UE drops the boot on them." she said with a note of bitterness.

Gothic Space Horror

#99

Micky looked up at Lt. Marney. "Have a seat Lt. Marney." She cast a glance to Hue, hoping he wouldnt mind the extra company. "What sector on P3X9 do they live in?" Micky gathered the cards and gave them a shuffle. She took another drink of beer. Watching both Hue and Lt. Marney now.

Gothic Space Horror

#100

"Well both are good by me, during Diamunde things were so jumbled up half the people in my unit were from planets around the system half from colonies. Their the same people but the politicians in the UE and in the colonies abroad have been itching to take something. Especially now that the UE holds a couple colonies." Amas took a dreg of the Fidel enjoying the pleasant smell and sense of calm he felt, he offered one to Lt. Marney.

"Well I think your right about P3X9 taking the first shot but that'd only be if they found about the UE's warship program here. I've heard some interesting stuff coming out of there too. Especially black market wise, there's stuff in coming out of there that isn't even a year or two old. I bet the UE steaming about their lost warship because it's a first strike weapon against a colony like P3X9. I don't about you guys but some of the holo hull it looked like they could put some pretty heavy weapon plaforms on that bird."

"My sister Ping said some strange stuff about UE internal affairs guys hauling off spacers in major cities. There's been a couple riots in Seattle too, that's always been a pretty liberal, but after what the UE did to Old New York and San Diego I don't think they'd get to violent." Amas paused, a couple of the most weird looking thugs and punks came in through the door, but they didn't seem to be looking for any fights and settled at the bar. Amas was glad he brought his Sunjet this old station got pretty shady on some of the levels farther from the main docking collars and bays.

Gothic Space Horror

#101

"I will tell you, that is one thing that has me curious about this mission. I mean, there are already combat vessels, armed with some heavy lasers, but every time the captain mentions that ship he calls her a warship like she is something completely new." Marney took the Fidel and accepted a light from Hue as well.

"I met the two new crewmen, one looks like a space rat, a lunar by his accent. I dont think he has ever seem anything other than the insides of a station, or a ship. The other looks tough, marine aerojock or something like that." she said, puffing on the cigar.

Gothic Space Horror

#102

"You might be right about the Celeste being something new. And something bad as far as the colonies are concerned." She looked around then leaned in closer to the two of them. "Some new fangled goody the UE has probably cooked up. Take out P3X9 and the other colonies will fall inline." She leaned back in her seat.
"When this mission is over, I am not going to wait around for my payment. This is still alittle to fishy. And I have a bad feeling that the "payment" will be a bullet in the head. I mean we are going to be all over that ship, prepping it for tow. I doubt that the UE will let us walk away with any info we might gather about the ship."
"Especially those of us who are from the colonies." She finished her beer, she then gathered up the empty bulbs and went a disposed of them in the recycle shoot before returning to the table. Micky looked to both Lt. Marney and Hue. Thinking about something Marney had said. "A lunar on this mission? What is their station?" She was curious as to what the Lunar would be doing on their ship.

Gothic Space Horror

#103

"I can tell you why they picked the Ballard," Marney said, taking another puff on her cigar. "Captain Stern is a hardliner, they have cooked up a deal with him, a fat paycheck to keep his crew quiet, and a commision in the UE Space Navy." she said with a conspiratorial tone.

"You know he is a South African, and they supported the UE movement whole heartedly, plus he is decorated, and has a long service career. I think they are planning on making him something like a rear admiral."

"As for the Celeste, that is why we were told hands off. They dont want anyone getting into her computer systems or anything like that. If the crew is fine, we might just be giving her a jumpstart or we might tow them in, but may never step foot aboard her, the UESN crew would prep her for tow."

Gothic Space Horror

#104

"That's assuming that her crew is fine." She shrugged. "If not we have to go aboard and find out what happened to the crew. Plus prep her for tow." Micky rubbed her nose briefly. She wasnt one for cigar smoke. Before she could say another word her wristwatch went off. "Sorry guys. I hate to call it an early night but I have been up for a day or so." She removed herself from her seat. "Thanks for the beers and the game Hue. " She then nodded to Marney. "See you both back onboard the Ballard."
Micky left the bar and made her way back to the ship. Once in her quarters she removed her shoes and set her watch for five hours. Micky went to sleep while the rest of the crew was busy elsewhere.

Gothic Space Horror

#105

The interior of the ship was both dark and quiet as Micky made her way to her quarters. The main lights had been extinguished for the time being and only the emergency strip lights at the bottoms of the corridors were burning. Far from an ominous feel, the ship simply felt asleep, dormant for a while. She could hear a few distant noises, clangs and other noises. It was likely the strange duo of engineers, Pockets and Pliers doing maintainence on the Bally while she was powered down.

Gothic Space Horror

#106

"Night Micky," hue turned to Marney, "I think she hit the nail on the head that time. I had better hit the rack before I drink much more or I'm going to end up with a hangover tomorrow." He glanced at the bar, "No disrepsect intended but I think it'd be best if you left soon too." Hue made his way wearily back to the docking bay. Before he went out on the outrigger he lit one more cigar and spent a good twenty minutes enjoying the teasing armoa. Clintons were alright but they left a after taste, and cigarettes were packed with more chemicals than a Marine chem kit. Na, a Fidel now that was a smoke, some people said they still rolled Fidels on virgin girls' legs on the night after puberty back in old Cuba.

Hue enjoyed the last deacaying bud then desposed of it. Hue hurried onto the outrigger and onto the ship. It was eeire quiet sounds followed each step, once the low level lighting went out along the corridor he was in Hue didn't even realise he had pulled his pistol and almost shot a cleaning bot behind him. Hue breathed a low sigh of relief when the low level lights came back on he holstered his weapon but he still left it loose and easily accessed too. He made it back to his room with out further incident. He stashed the Sunjet under his pillow and put the holster in a black bag that had a thumb print lock on it that held also a blocky DX2 combat pistol and a few other rare and odd items Hue had collected on his. A piece of a TP1 tank armor that he had killed by grabbing and injured soldiers Straight Arrow and blowing the tank up while taking most of the back blast himself so his charges weren't further injured.

Suddenly Hue found himself in his memorries back on the coast of Diamundes primary continent. D-Day, more than forty six combat shuttles had pumted through hte atomshpere to the ocean below to let off three times that number hover craft that each conveyed a twelve man squad of Marines to the coast. The Marine hover armor came over the top of beach hill at a hundred plus miles per hour only to meet more than a Battalion of TP1 Main Battle Tanks. The beasts had thick armor hides only penetrable by specificaly designed Straight Arrow and similiar desgn weapons. In seconds several Marine transports were destroyed or in among the tanks. the only thing that kept them alive was their shocking speed.

Corpseman Long's squad transport had been hit with an AP round that passed through the driver, killing him, taking off the head of Corperal Dean, and passing through the chest of PFC Dark. Hue had hit the emergancy release on the back hatch...

Hue shook himself out of the painful moments of reliving the first day. He stowed his clothes and climbed into the bed.

Gothic Space Horror

#107

Pockets watched the refueling to make sure the pump-monkeys knew what they were doing. Then she went and grabbed a workout, a shower, and a long nap. When she got up, there was still an hour or two left of shore leave, so she wandered into the station to do a very small amount of sightseeing.

Gothic Space Horror

#108

The ship came back to life with an hour to go before departure. The main lights came on, the reactor came back to life under the careful eye of the engineering team. The power hiccup seemed to have vanished, but Pockets was not so easily decieved, most mechanical glitches would hide until a ship was underway and away from repair facilities.

Captain Stern sat on the bridge, his eyes were red and bleary from too much caffiene and tobacco, and not enough sleep. The holoprojectors displayed external views of the spaceframe of the dock, Tybee station, as well as displaying a news feed from the UENN, United Earth News Network. Hostilities were flaring in the belt region as Belters proposed to blockade Earth from belt, and jovian products. The UE was responding with saber rattling and their general charming selves. The UE president Gerard DuGalle called for peace and negotiations, and hoped for a swift resolution of the problem.

Gothic Space Horror

#109

Severing was caught by surprise as he noticed the hum of the engines.
He had been spending most of the time on Europa in bed or exploring the
lower parts of the ship. He had been ill for quite a while, but he had been able to hide it well. He made his way up to the brigde while he tried memorize the ship's lower level layout.

Gothic Space Horror

#110

Micky, refreshed from her long nap, returned to the bridge. Taking her seat she sat down, strapped in and checked all read-outs.
Micky had changed her clothes and showered before returning to the bridge. She was wearing her black unifrom instead of her blue. She sighed. it was time to get this party started.

Gothic Space Horror

#111

Hue awoke to the thrumming of the reactor core he got up showered, he grabbed a brown synthleather jacket and some kackie cargo pants. He grabbed a dark T-shirt, he slid the holster on and put the Sunjet in it. Hue grabbed the jacket nad headed to the infirmy to report to Lt. Marney.

Gothic Space Horror

#112

The bridge was abuzz with activity, most of the active systems were performing last cycle diagnostics before disembarking from Tybee. The reactor and associated systems were a bank of glowing green embers, and the sensors showed the situation in crystal clear detail, all systems functional. The captain sat, slouched in the command chair.

"Micky," the captain said, "Take us out, and lay in a course for Uranus. Intel has confirmed a large metallic object orbiting there, they think it is the Celeste, and that is where our search is going to start."

"Attention all hands," The captain said into the open intercomm, his voice carrying to every inch of the ship. "Prepare for heavy boost, all systems lockdown, once all systems are locked down, all crewmen report to the medbay, i repeat once all systems are locked down, all crewmen report to the medbay.

*****
Lt. Marney looked like she was wearing the last halo of a particularly randy hangover. She gave Hue a weak smile as he entered the medbay. She was busy preparing the Gee-Tanks where the crew would rest, protected from the monsterous force of acceleration the ship was going to be experiencing soon.

"I've only done a hard burn like this once." she said as she keyed a sequence into one of the tank control pads. "That time we only pulled 6 Gees and only for 5 hours. I cant even imagine how fast we will be going when we finally come out of the tanks."

"I think we are actually going to try for 12 Gees, and for something like 18 hours. The plan is pretty simple, we program each tank for 20 hours. After that much time, the tank cycles and the tankee is released. Before anyone goes into a tank, we pop them with a sedative to keep them asleep for at least that long, otherwise it is a very unpleasant trip."

"The only thing I dont like is that the entire burn sequence is controled by the computer with no human observation. I dont completely trust computers, I have seen computer failures." she said.

*****
The engineering compartment was awash with noise. The fuel pumps were coming up to operating pressure. The entire system was high pressure to keep the flow of fuel going into the reactor, and into the ion engines even during heavy burn. Tools and data readers lay scattered about the control section, things that would become lethal projectiles when the burn was initiated. Others would be destroyed if left out, left to crush against the bulkhead when the engines came alive.

Gothic Space Horror

#113

"When I was stationed on the Gavin it was an exploration ship we did a burn from Lunar to the belt at ten g's. I hate this the stuff always gets everyhere." Hue was at the control panel for the accelaration tubes. "When Diamunde first broke out the troop transport I was on said we didn't have time to unload us from the tubes once we got there so the amde us all sit in accelaration, in full combat gear the entire trip. That was painful. Tubes one through four are ready."

Gothic Space Horror

#114

"I guess that would explain the sidearm." Marney said, "I wouldnt worry too much about it now, the captain wouldnt notice it if you waved it in front of his face. His daughter was crewing on the Celeste and he has been drinking. He will be fine later, but we really dont need him right now, we are ready, and the engineers dont need his instruction. He is only needed when we get to the Celeste."

"I've seen the Gavin," she said as she preped tube 7. "I cant believe that she could actually pull 10 gees, but I guess she weighs less than she looks. The Bally is pretty damn heavy as far as ships go, but she is 75% engine and reactor, so in perspective she doesnt weigh much."

Gothic Space Horror

#115

Pockets rushed around engineering at various speeds, none of them low. She'd been an ass and left things lying about, and she didn't know where Pliers had gotten off to. Had to get everything stowed before the burn ignited, and hopefully get to where she could secure herself. She wished that she could stay and monitor the burn, but she'd be crushed if she did. She snagged the last thing and secured it, then glanced over at the guage that had registered that power fluctuation earlier. It was running normal, but it still bothered her. She hit the intercom to the bridge. "Engineering locked down and ready for burn. Chief Engineer reporting to medbay."
Then she bolted down the hall to med. She didn't really care much for the Gee Tubes, but she'd have to deal. "Hi, doc."

Gothic Space Horror

#116

Ao nervously chafed his palms together, ran a hand through his hair, stepped into the bay. It wasn't that he minded the acceleration, or the gees, or even the Gee Tubes- it was the sedation. He never understood why, but he hadn't enjoyed sedation during the application of his RNA learning medications, and he wouldn't enjoy it now. It was like dying, being sedated was, or going to sleep, except you were doing it without wanting or needing to, and Ao had always thought that someday, some doctor would put to much sedative into him and his heart would stop, or his muscles freeze, or something like that- irrational fears, but potent.
He stepped into the medical bay, running a checklist through his mind of the things which he had put safely away in an acceleration chest. Clothes- check. Bookpad- check. PADD- check. What else was there? Oh, it didn't matter. He approached Marney.
"Are you sure you have the right dosage? No, don't answer that," Ao said, the beginning of his stutter coming on. "I don't want to know. Just put me under."

Gothic Space Horror

#117

Micky punched in the coordinates. "Uranus coordinates are locked in Captain. Ready to begin Burn count down on your command." Ince he gave the command Micky would initiate the final count down sequence which would give her time to make it to the medlab as well. She had no desire to be liquified. She unclipped her harness and swiveled her chair to look at the Captain. Micky sat waiting for the final command.

Gothic Space Horror

#118

Hue was thankful Marney didn't take the subject farther, but he would be damned if he got sedated on a ship with a Captain that could be willing to do anything on this mission. It was a relief that since he was the assistant medical officer that he would be put to sleep last or just before Marney.

"Just try to relax Ao, I've been sedated to many times to count for burns, not had a mishap ever, and never heard of one happening." hue tried to reassure Ao it took his mind off his own fears.

Tagget in the way

#119

Tagget saunted into the bridge. He plopped himself at an auxillary station. After linking his HUD glasses to the station, he turned to the pilot. "Hey, anything I can help with? Working together we can cut the list and have more time before hitting the tubes."

Gothic Space Horror

#120

Plies, like pockets, had spent the first while back-checking all the procedures which Jenna had performed, and triple-checked the readout to the engines. He hadnt seen that hiccup that Pockets had mentioned, but was aware that anyone in her position would know what she were doing as well as himself. Upon seeing all systems green, he left the bay and had taken a quick shower, before heading out, doing a bit of solo wandering around the dropoff.

He re-enterred the ship much later, to find the lights back on and the ship ready to lift, and he was in front of the door to the engineering bay to enter it for cleanup just as pockets left for the medbay. Pliers gave one last quick look and cleanup at the systems within the bay before heading down there himself.